Alexander Schimmelfennig

Alexander Schimmelfennig (20 July 1824-5 September 1865) was a Brigadier-General of the US Army during the American Civil War. A German immigrant, he was chosen for command by President Abraham Lincoln in order to earn him German voters ahead of the 1864 presidential election, and he was not known to be a skilled general. However, he would be given the honor of accepting Charleston, South Carolina's surrender in 1865, and he died of tuberculosis shortly after the war's end.

Biography
Alexander Schimmelfenig was born in Bromberg, Prussia (now Bydgoszcz, Poland) on 20 July 1824, and he became a member of radical political groups in Cologne. He was an active participant in the 1848 revolution in Germany, and he was twice wounded while fighting for August Willich's Palatine revolutionary army at Rinnthal on 17 June 1849. After the battle, he fled to Switzerland to escape the death penalty, and he joined Karl Schapper and Willich's Communist League in England. In 1854, he moved to the United States, and he helped in raising the 74th Pennsylvania Infantry for the Union at the start of the American Civil War. He later rose to divisional command under Oliver O. Howard, and he was scapegoated for Howard's folly at the Battle of Chancellorsville in 1863. It was said that President Abraham Lincoln had promoted Schimmelfennig because of his name, as he sought to gain the support of German-speaking voters by promoting German immigrants to leadership positions. Schimmelfennig was not particularly talented at leading armies, but his appointment to the generalship showed that even immigrants could become generals, inspiring many immigrant soldiers.

At the Battle of Gettysburg, he commanded a brigade in Carl Schurz's division, and he narrowly evaded capture by hiding in a shed owned by the Garlach family, while hundreds of his men were captured in the confusion caused by the Confederate capture of the town of Gettysburg. He rejoined the corps after days of hiding, and his men were joyful that he was alive. After Gettysburg, he commanded a brigade in the American South, and he accepted the surrender of Charleston, South Carolina on 18 February 1865. He contracted tuberculosis in Charleston's swamps, however, and he died in Reading, Pennsylvania on 5 September 1865.